Hand in Hand
by Anastashia
Summary: Lee finally asks Kara. Will it ever happen?
1. Chapter 1

This is a response to a request at for stories about couples preparing for or having their wedding. The song I'm using for this is clearly a Christian wedding song but it still prompted me to think about these two. It can be found at 

Disclaimer: Unfortunately I don't own them, but playing with then this way seems to be somewhat in the intent of the people that do.  
Archiving: Please let me know.  
Pairing: Lee/Kara

Spoilers: None known

Rating: T

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

She was going to kill him, unless he was already dead of course, then she would just have the pleasure of spacing him. If she kept up her anger she could ignore the somersaults of fear that her stomach was doing as she ran to where the deck crew was already extracting him from the mangled Viper. It looked like he was alive and relatively unscathed, but the Viper, not so good. Ok so the Chief was going to get the pleasure of killing him.

He'd insisted on being the last to land, even though they'd known his Viper was damaged, being CAG and all. More like being an idiot she thought angrily. Instead of a reasonably controlled combat landing the damaged strut on his landing skid had collapsed sending his Viper skidding. It had narrowly avoided taking out three others, but then crashed rather dramatically against the rear bulkhead of the landing pod before bouncing off just enough to avoid keeping the pod from being fully retracted so they could complete the jump.

"What the frak was that Apollo? Are you trying to kill yourself? Let me take care of it for you!"

"I'm sure you can make it painless" he managed to gasp out. It was only then that she noticed the beads of sweat on his forehead, the grimace on his face, and his hand splayed across his ribs. The somersaults started again.

The med tech, who was working on Apollo, looked from the CAG to the senior pilot and decided that the trouble he would be in from revealing the CAG's private medical information was less than the danger he would be in from denying Starbuck anything at that moment. "Two broken ribs sir, he should be fine. We do have to get him to Life Station to be sure though. She nodded and, realizing she now had the wing, reluctantly went to find the Chief for post-mission evaluation.

It was about 45 minutes before she reached Life Station. She found him in a bed propped up at a 45 degree angle to make his breathing easier. She was going to lay into him again when he held up his hand for her to stop and nodded to the table that stretched across his bed. There was a small music player on it. "Listen" he croaked out.

The music asked her to come, and take his hand it told her that their hearts were joined together in love that there was no more two,  
there was only one.

It told her they walked unafraid of what was ahead that the road was not sure, but together they knew it was paved in the love sowed in their hearts that they were standing hand in hand.

It told her that their lifes together would be a sign of love for the world to see.

As she stood there stunned she noticed his hand slide into the single pocket on his hospital gown. He slowly pulled it out and she saw a fist. He slowly turned the fist over and opened it. In the palm of his hand rested a silver band.

"Lee?", her voice was soft, the wonder almost tinged with fear.

"Kara?", his voice was soft too, but long withheld desire was definitely there.

She looked him full in the eyes and whispered "Yes".

Lee blinked. 'Yes, she'd said yes? No, wait a minute, she'd said yes?' He was stunned into silence. All of the arguments he had ready to use to convince her were on the tip of his tongue and now all of a sudden he had no where to go, nothing to say. 'What now?' he was finally able to think to himself.

Kara stood watching him for a few seconds before she realized what was happening. He hadn't expected her immediate agreement. If he wasn't in that hospital bed she might have made him pay for that lapse, but she figured she'd already shocked him once today so why not keep up the game. She carefully removed the ring from his palm and set it down on the table. Then she grabbed both of his hands in hers and pushing them up high on his chest to keep her weight off his broken ribs, leaned in and captured his lips with hers.

Lee's capacity to think, not that he'd been doing that well for the last few minutes, totally evaporated.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

There were purple and pink dresses and multicolored orchids strewn all about the room. Kara looked around at the utter chaos and thought, 'Isn't it supposed to look like this after the ceremony? If it's already like this now...' She was getting ready to panic when her matron of honor took everything in hand. Four women and two children were suddenly dressed. Flowers made it into hair, baskets, and a long-stemmed bouquet. The pillow was ready. Kara looked at herself in the mirror. At the last minute she had been uncertain about this dress, but Lee would be bowled over. That thrilled her in so many ways.

In the groom's room Lee had panicked causing William Adama to pinch his nose and shake his head. He walked up to his son and grasped his shoulders firmly, "Lee, you can do this." The younger Adama took a deep breath and calmly began dressing as his father handed him his dress grey uniform piece by piece. When Lee finished dressing he turned to see that Galen Tyrol and Karl Agathon were ready. Helo gave Lee a wink before the four men left the room. Tyrol and the two Adamas moved toward the front of the hanger deck while Helo moved in the other direction.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXxXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Major Lee Adama looked back over his shoulder toward the archway at the back of the hanger deck as the song he had used to propose to Kara now became the procession music. The first to come through the arch was Hera Agathon. The six year old was adorned in a full length dress of fuchsia velvet, her long hair was mostly loose, with a small bit gathered at the back. She carried a white basket filled with pink, purple, and turquoise orchid petals which she gleefully threw into the air as she walked. Lee couldn't help laughing as he watched her antics. As she reached the front Laura Roslin guided her to her seat.

Next to come through the arch was four year old Nicholas Tyrol. The little boy was dressed in a tuxedo the same color as the groom's dress uniform. He carried a dark purple pillow on which was tied two silver bands. The second band had been Kara's gift to Lee. Nicky looked all over the hanger as he came forward. Lee, having barely recovered from laughing at Hera, struggled to avoid shaking his head or covering his eyes to keep back the tears. He covered by glancing to the side at the boy's father and saw that the Chief hadn't managed to keep from shaking his head. Laura corralled Nicky also.

Next to emerge was Margaret Edmundson. She was dressed in a gown of dark rose purple. Her long hair was loose on one side and fastened under a pink orchid on the other. When her eyes met Lee's she gave him a pleasant smile and he returned it. Cally Tyrol emerged next. She was dressed similar to Marge except that her orchid was on the other side of her face. When her eyes met Lee's her smile lit up the room. Lee's smile back to her was happy, ending with a small laugh. It was Sharon Agathon's turn next. Her dress was of dusty rose and her two orchids were purple. As she came through the arch she immediately sought Lee's eyes. When they made eye contact she gave him a small nod. Lee's return nod was only just perceptible.

Lee next saw a bit of grey as Karl Agathon started to enter the archway, and then she was there, Lee's bride. She was dressed in an off the shoulder gown, which wrapped tightly around her bosom and dropped to a closely fitted waist. From there though the skirt flared out around her. On her head was a conical white headpiece from which floated a short veil. When she first emerged she had pulled down her head and shoulders. He could tell there was a smile on her face though and it occurred to him she almost looked like a little girl. Then she looked up at him and he was lost. His eyes widened, his mouth dropped open. He barely felt his father's hand touch his arm as William said "You probably want to close your mouth son." Lee at least managed that, but when Helo and Kara reached him, Helo had to grasp Lee's arm and bring it forward in order to put Kara's hand in Lee's. The bride and groom managed to turn to the priestess on their own while Helo joined the other men at Lee's side.

The priestess looked at the two of them and then at the gathered guests to ask the traditional question that sought any objections to a joining. "Uncle Lee?" Lee pulled back slightly from Kara and glanced over his shoulder toward Hera.  
"Yes Hera"  
"You're not supposed to marry Aunt Kara, you're supposed to marry me"  
Barely hearing Karl admonish his daughter by sharply calling her full name, Lee glanced at Kara, shrugged his shoulders, dropped Kara's hand, and turned to walk to Hera. As he started walking the urge to laugh started building again. 'What else is going to happen today?' he wondered.

TBC


	2. Chapter 2

Just a little bit more:

Lee continued on to the first row of seats where Nicky and Hera sat just behind where his groomsmen stood. When he reached the end of the row he crouched down so that he could get closer to the little girl. Taking her hands in his he said to her "Hera,why do you think I'm supposed to marry you? You knew that I was going to marry your Aunt Kara today, didn't you?  
The little girl looked at him in obvious confusion, "You only have to look at the stars you were born under to know," she said cryptically. Lee was surprised to see his father start noticably out of the corner of his eye. "The stars I was born under?" Now there was confusion in Lee's voice.  
"Hera" William Adama's voice rang out sternly. Lee stood and turned to his father.  
"Dad?" Lee's voice was quiet and almost fearful.  
"It's too soon for you to know. Hera wasn't supposed to..." the Admiral hesitated.  
"Know what? Hera wasn't supposed to what?" The confused bride had finally joined the conversation.

The Admiral finally sighed in frustration and turned to the seated guests. "Ladies and gentlemen," he said, "there's going to be a brief delay. If you would all move to the mess hall, please feel free to avail yourselves of the refreshments." He noted his soon to be daughter-in-laws slightly angered look of surprise and closed his eyes briefly. When he opened them Lee was staring at him open mouthed. "Mr Gaeta"  
"Sir?" responded Felix.  
"Go to CIC and pull the star chart from the night Hera was born." He flinched as both Karl and Sharon reacted to that command but continued on. "Then go to my quarters. On the far right bookshelf, the top shelf, you'll find several leather bound photo albums. It should be the second one with a red leather cover, but if you open the cover you'll see 'Lee' embossed on the first page. Bring that all to the Ready Room"  
"Yes sir," responded Gaeta.  
"and you young lady," Adama addressed Hera, "what do you need"  
"I've got it," responed the six year old and skipped out of the hanger bay.  
Lee and Kara sank into two of the now empty seats, starring at each other in complete confusion while Sharon and Karl just shrugged at each other.


	3. Chapter 3

Adama walked into the Ready Room and pinned the chart from the night of Hera's birth up on the bulkhead behind the podium. The others had sat in the first row of seats in front of him. He took the photo album from Gaeta and flipped to one of the earliest pages. The picture showed a starlit sky. In the lower right hand corner was the silohuette of a man holding an infant up to the sky. The man was clearly William Adama

He placed the book in Lee's lap and his son quickly scanned the picture. As he glanced up at the chart on the bulkhead he let out a quiet moan. Placing the album open on his bride's lap Lee got up, climbed to the rear corner of the compartment, and slid down to the deck. As he drew his legs toward him he dropped his chin to his chest, hiding his face from view.

Kara studied the picture for a bit longer than Lee had before glancing up at the bulkhead before her. "Well that's interesting," she said to no one in particular before passing the album to Helo. Karl glanced at both of the items quickly before passing them off to his wife.

Sharon stared intently at the photo in front of her. She spread the fingers of her hand across the picture moving it from left to right and murmuring to herself. She spared a quick glance at the chart on the wall before looking up a William a shocked look on her face.

It was at that moment that Hera chose to enter carrying a small drawstring bag. She glanced around the compartment noticing Lee's dejected posture and the photo album in her mother's lap. Walking over to Lee she squatted down in front of him. "All of this has happened before, all of this will happen again" she intoned solemly before reaching into the bag.

She pulled out a small flat item, very similar in size to the dog tags all of the military personnel wore. It was slightly larger though and appeared luminescent white. Hera placed the disk in the palm of her left hand. Touching her other hand to Lee's knee to make sure he was watching the disk she tapped the edge of it with her middle finger.

A swirl of moving stars appeared in a projected cone above the disk, the glow from the projection lighting Lee's face. The stars started to move and along with that motion Lee could see two indicators, moving at different speeds, one on each side of the disk.  
The motion stopped and Lee started when he realized the star patterns shown matched the other two he had just seen. Hera caught his eye and nodded to one of the indicators. "Three months," she said to him with a smile, "twenty seven jumps, that's when you'll be able to marry Aunt Kara."

Lee stared at the little girl in shock and said "I thought you said I was going to marry you."

"Silly Uncle Lee," she responded "of course you are, but that comes much later." Giggling she got up, walked over to the Admiral, and handed him the disk. Then she came back to Lee. Reaching into her bag again she pulled out another disk. This one was slightly smaller and its luminescent appeatance held a slight tinge of blue. "You need to keep this one with you." she told Lee solemly.

Standing up Lee walked over to kara. He shrugged. "I guess we're not getting married today. Let's go get changed and then go enjoy our party." He was shocked when she didn't hit him but just nodded and followed him to their quarters. The others stood glancing at each other with open mouths.

Shortly after Lee and Kara entered the Mess Hall dressed in casual clothes. Lee addressed their curious guests, "It looks as if there isn't going to be a wedding today, but that doesn't mean there isn't going to be a wedding at all. Please continue to enjoy the party for as long as you'd like." Enjoying the party is what Lee and Kara proceeded to do. Shortly after they arrived Helo and Sharon joined them, dressed in similar attire.

Hours later Lee and Kara returned to their quarters. As Kara prepared for bed, Lee sat down and started to think.

_Flashback_

_Lee had been injured and was at the point where his bed in the Infirmary was becoming increasingly boring even with the visits from his pilots. Helo appeared at the curtain into his cubicle and asked "Game of Triad?" Lee frowned, and then something occured to him. "How about you go get your daughter and one of her games?"_

_Helo stifled a laugh, "Hera and a game?"_

_"Yeah," responded Lee. Helo shrugged and went to do as Lee had asked._

_When Helo and Hera returned the little girl climbed into Lee's lap happily, throwing her arms around him and calling out "Unka Lee!" in glee._

_Lee flinched and Helo squatted down and looked at his daughter. "Hera, what did we talk about?" he asked seriously._

_"No bump Unka Lee, Unka Lee hurt," the little girl said with a pout. Hera turned to Lee. "I sowy Unka Lee," she said, a sad look on her face._

_"It's ok," he responded with a small smile on his face. "So what do we have here?"_


End file.
